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Expat's Eye
Print Edition> Expat's Eye
UPDATED: February 22, 2009 NO. 8 FEB. 26, 2009
Recycling Mentality
By GOU FU MAO
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I usually feel good about the march of environmentalism in China: People here, on average, consume less and, compared to other developing nations I've been to, are more aware of the damaged mess our environment is in. But it annoys me to see Western coffee and fast food chains come to China. While playing lip service to the community through expensive corporate social responsibility campaigns, they inculcate a throwaway culture in local customers by offering only throwaway tableware.

 

GREEN LIFESTYLE: Students at the Shanxi Normal University are leading the nation in an environmental awareness campaign by collecting every recyclable item they can find (YAN RUIPENG) 

I've stopped going to my local Starbucks because the staff will only reluctantly pour my coffee using porcelain mugs--tucked away in a cupboard--and by default serve in disposable plastic-coated paper cups. There's a 2-yuan ($0.3) discount if you bring your own mug, but this incentive isn't publicized, at least not prominently, in store.

Similarly at Chinese branches of KFC and McDonald's: Several times I gave an attendant my own coffee cup (explaining that I don't want to generate waste) and each time they poured the coffee first into a throwaway plastic cup. That defeats the purpose of bringing my own reusable dishware (which also saves the fastfood shop the cost and task of dumping their's). "I'm being environmentally friendly," I've tried saying. Sometimes there's a nod of recognition but often it's a giggle or a quizzical stare of bemusement.

Aren't these people taught by management to save resources? Does KFC and McDonald's talk to staff about saving resources to save the planet (and company money)? Excess milk and sugar sachets, handed out by default whether wanted or not, end up in the bin, unused. Better to ask customers if they need milk and sugar, because some of us don't. For their wastefulness I now avoid both establishments.

Out on the streets there's more hope. While China has perilous environmental challenges, the average Beijinger appears aware of these. Vendors in local morning markets nod approvingly, when I refuse plastic and proffer a cloth bag. My action is praised to other customers. "Westerners are more environment friendly than Chinese" is a phrase I've come to know.

That's not necessarily true. "Chinese people can also conserve," I usually reply. And many do, partly because there's an incentive and partly because there's no choice. Because China's resources are limited compared to its almost infinitely large population, it's a lot easier to save and reuse resources here. I particularly like how Beijing's streets are patrolled by professional recyclers who cheerfully sift trash for paper, plastic and glass.

They're excited to come upon electronic appliances, which can be cranked up to reuse--or gutted for valuable copper wires. The bins on our street are emptied of their reusables by Zhang, a small-town man from northern Hebei Province. "Paper and plastic are not waste, they are reusable stuff that just needs to be picked up," he likes to say each time I call him to collect a stack of paper I've hoarded. My retired neighbor starts his day with a sweep of the local McDonald's and KFC stores. "After breakfast there's a lot of newspaper left lying around on tables," he explains. He sells his stash to Zhang, who tells me these days he's getting 0.09 yuan per ($0.01) plastic bottle and 1 yuan ($0.14) per kilogram of newspapers--about 60 percent what he was being paid a year ago.

The current economic climate changes everything. Prices for recyclables have fallen by up to 70 percent. Last year plastic bottles (squashed and shaved into droplets) cost about half what a manufacturer would pay for virgin plastic--high because of the high price of oil.

Now a world in recession doesn't need so many plastic dinner sets and polyester tracksuits. Hence manufacturers don't need the recycled plastics and folks like Zhang get paid less for their bottles. It's a similar story for the newspapers he's been collecting: Chinese paper mills aren't buying new stocks because newspapers and magazines drop sales and advertising (hence use less pages) in a recession.

It shows how interdependent and hooked up the global environment, as well as our economy, is. It's tough times for Zhang and his colleagues. But they're still collecting, figuring there'll be an upturn in prices, eventually. My local Starbucks meanwhile continues to throw away cups that no one can reuse. Cheers for Zhang.



 
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